


there's a line that goes all the way (from my childhood to you)

by lucyjaggat



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 12:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13294683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucyjaggat/pseuds/lucyjaggat
Summary: Theon and Robb pretend to be a couple for a psychological study at Northern University so that they can be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. It's funny, until it isn't.





	there's a line that goes all the way (from my childhood to you)

It was another blustery, freezing day in Winterfell when Theon saw the sign: _IN LOVE? PARTICIPATE IN THIS SURVEY FOR THE CHANCE TO WIN A $50 AMAZON GIFT CARD! Couples only. Email[psychology@northernu.edu](mailto:psychology@northernu.edu)_. Since his major (read: only) source of income was the occasional shift Robb managed to get for him at Starkbucks, Theon shrugged and ripped off one of the tabs gently fluttering in the wind. He stuffed it in his hoodie pocket, and promptly forgot about it until later. That evening, he was changing into his work uniform (a silver polo covered with a white apron with a smiling wolf and a cup of coffee) when he pulled his phone out and the slip of paper reading COUPLES [SURVEY-$50 psychology@nothernu.edu](mailto:SURVEY-%2450%20psychology@nothernu.edu) fell on the floor. The garish neon yellow color of the paper struck quite the contrast against the polished white floors of Starkbucks, drawing his eye instantly. He stooped to pick it up at the same time his best friend Robb did.

Looking back, that was the exact moment his life changed. If only moments that pivotal, that essential and crucial to where you ended up could be immortalized by something less fallible than human memory. As it was, Theon could only look back, at this hazy moment where his future crystallized into a solid, definite shape, and shrug at the idea of recalling more than a few anodyne details. What he remembered was enough: the panic he felt as he scrambled to pick it up before Robb could see, the increasing sense of panic as Robb picked it up instead, and lastly, what Theon thought might be the pinnacle of personal panic—when Robb’s auburn brows merely lifted and he said, “Hang on. I’ve got an idea.”

***

Starkbucks had been started almost two decades before by Ned and Catelyn Stark, shortly after their marriage. There had been a disruption in the coffee business when Jaime Lannister, the up-and-coming scion of his wealthy family, used his investment in Casterly Coffee to buy out the last, failing Targaryen Tea. This chain, which had held dominance over the coffee business in Westeros for decades, was quickly extinguished with the purchase of its final, coveted location. Jaime delivered this location, and the coffee trade, to Robert in return for some capital investments and a partial share in the profits. Casterly Coffee held the coffee trade in the West, and Robert, Ned, and Catelyn struck out on their own with Starkbucks. Their first location, nestled right off a side street near Northern University in Winterfell, was a stunning success. They soon branched out and Starkbucks became an iconic, and classic, northern chain. The location next to Northern U was a consumer favorite.

Theon liked it because it felt like home. His mother had died early in his childhood, and his father was always working, trying to make Greyjoy Industries into something it was never going to be. Theon spent long afternoons in the coffee shop as he had for years, buying a coffee and then idling for hours as the amount of liquid in his cup slowly dwindled. He got a nice discount whenever a Stark was behind the counter, at least. And they had finally gotten a new sofa to replace the old one in the corner that Theon frequented, which was great because the old one was in a great location but had a spring sticking out uncomfortably. He had a suspicion Robb had something to do with the purchase of the new couch, since the rest of the furniture was in the sort of shabby chic state that most coffeeshop furniture existed in.

He had fallen in with the Stark family after his father had attempted to cheat the Starks out of a new location when Theon was about eight years old. Theon still didn’t understand the details, or care to figure out just what had happened, but it had involved a hefty amount of legal maneuvering to keep Balon from prison, and all of it meant even more time for Theon to be on his own. His older sister had already gone off to college, and Theon, kicking his heels as he waited outside the courtroom one day, was bored and lonely when he caught sight of a boy his age. The boy had red hair and looked just like his mother, copied onto a gangly and solemn ten-year-old.  Theon hated him on sight. He figured probably his father actually had wronged them, but it didn’t seem relevant. Whatever it was, it itched at him and made him want to lash out. He balled up a wad of paper and aimed.

Theon flicked the wad of paper as hard as he could, with the consummate skill long hours of being Asha Greyjoy’s little brother had gotten him. It struck Robb in the neck, and he dropped the Gameboy he was frowning over and yelped quietly. His eyes fixed on Theon and narrowed in anger. Then, taking in Theon’s disheveled appearance (t-shirt with a hole in it, hair just a fraction too long so it hung in his eyes, ratty sneakers, and what had to be an absolutely massive chip on his shoulder), he smiled just a bit and said, “Hey!”

Theon prepared for the negative reaction. At least it would mean someone was paying attention to him. But Robb smiled even wider and warmer, and Theon’s tensed-up shoulders fell of their own accord. “Could you teach me how to do that?”

Theon, at a loss, assented.

Their friendship had grown from there. Theon had his share of sullen periods as he fell in with the Starks, especially since his father disapproved of him hanging out with the people who had thwarted him. It strained things, but eventually his dad had made an uneasy peace with it. Once Theon finished high school, he moved out, and from then on it was a lot easier to hide the fact that Robb Stark had become his best friend, and the Starks the family he had never really had. Asha, as always, was far away, traveling on their father’s business. She sent Theon postcards sometimes: ones with snow, ones with ice, ones with palm trees. No number Theon tried to call her on seemed to work for very long, and she was rarely online for him to contact through other means. It frustrated him, but he had learned to accept it. He had learned to accept a lot of things, over the years.

Some days, he thought he had even managed to make peace with the fact that his family only loved him in the abstract, or from a distance. The nature of this love was something he had become accustomed to. His family, transmitting. Theon, passively receiving. He wasn’t sure how else it could really work. Until he met the Starks. No one he had ever met had ever loved like the Starks did. They were full of light. They were always touching: Jon lying his legs over Robb’s as they watched TV, Sansa braiding Arya’s hair, Bran and Rickon greeting each other with increasingly complex handshakes every time they passed in the kitchen. All of their movements were suffused with a type of love and easy affection that was utterly alien to Theon. Sometimes Robb would clasp his shoulder and it seemed to burn through his shirt. He would raise his hand to return the favor and stop halfway, unsure of how exactly to carry it off in a natural fashion, like Robb did. It didn’t matter, because Robb seemed to understand anyway.

When they both decided on college, it seemed pretty natural to apply to Northern U. At first Theon hadn’t even considered college, but Robb had turned to him, all kind eyes and conviction, and said, “But, man, you could really do something.” That was all it had taken for Theon to open a CommonApp account and apply. Northern U was pretty generous with financial aid, and Balon kicked him some money every once in a while, but things were still fairly tight and Theon was basically on a shoestring budget. Going somewhere else was out of the question, because Robb had wanted to do business at Northern for as long as he could imagine. He still lived at home, in his giant house with all his siblings, and whatever stray children the Starks found. Theon lived in a shitty studio apartment a few blocks from campus, but away from the more popular areas to live, so his rent wasn’t too bad, considering. Robb’s mom didn’t really trust Theon, even after all these years, which he supposed was somewhat fair but still resented when he thought about it sometimes. It wasn’t like he had anything to do with his father’s actions, but he was still a Greyjoy, and for a lot of people that was enough.

Being Robb Stark’s friend had been a lonely endeavor at times. Robb had no shortage of people who wanted his attention, and from an early age had been accustomed to getting attention in turn. He was easily frustrated, but quiet. He was exceedingly kind, but could be brusque with people. Theon often felt as though he were trailing in Robb’s wake. Robb, the athlete. Robb, the honor student. Robb, the student body president. Theon knew he wasn’t terrible-looking, could always be counted on for a smile and a joke, and had an instinct for knowing what people wanted to hear. The problem was that he could never manage to say the right thing, unless it was a joke. His sharp tongue and humor drove away more people than it charmed, until high school, when an acerbic wit was suddenly a highly prized skill. Through it all, Robb always laughed at his jokes, brought him out of his gloom, and, even though they never ever talked about their families, provided a sort of refuge from Balon’s ceaseless drama and disappointment.

Theon was similarly unable to vocalize just what Robb meant to him. Unaccustomed to friendship, he was unsure of how to articulate who Robb was to him. This was difficult enough when they became friends, and became even more complex when they got to high school and Robb started sports. That was when _it_ had happened. Theon forgot what day it was exactly, or even what sport or other Robb had been practicing for, but he remembered the rest with a clarity that surprised him even as he deliberately misunderstood its import. The sun had been shining with that kind of dim golden glow that happens in late afternoon in the fall, and Theon was meeting Robb by the track after school. Robb had caught sight of him, grinned, and bounded over with that easy grace he had.

“Hey man,” he said, tossing his backpack down and unzipping it. Pulling out a water bottle, he uncapped it and began to guzzle the water greedily. In the sunlight, his lean profile caught the light and seemed to burn, from the flame of his hair, down to his aquiline nose. Theon’s stomach flipped and his heart started beating faster. It was from this moment that he was lost.

From then on, he had been plagued, absolutely plagued, by all manner of physical symptoms whenever he saw Robb. His heart would start hammering away in his chest until he was sure Robb could hear it, a dull pounding in his ears that he tried to swallow away. His palms would sweat a bit. And, worst of all, he would trip over his words, something he had never done with Robb before. Time seemed to do nothing to lessen these problems. The only thing that happened was that Theon learned to cover them up more effectively.

He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what it meant. But it was something he carefully avoided thinking about, like, ever. It was way better to be Robb’s friend than to ever try and put words to whatever he was feeling, which he couldn’t be sure of anyway since he’d never felt like that before, so who was to say it was even what he thought, right? At least, this was how he had managed to rationalize it to himself. Theon despised cowardice in others, but when he couldn’t sleep at night he would think about Robb and hate his own cowardice the most.

***

All of this led up to that pivotal moment when Robb said, “I’ve got an idea.”

Theon, at a loss for words, simply said, “what.”

“Ok, so, one of the girls running this study, Jeyne, is in my Corp Management class and I heard her talking about it. Apparently the Psych department has a ton of these gift cards left over from studies last year. So the chance of getting one is really high. If you participate all the way to the end of the study and they think you’re like, a good subject, you might even get more than one? Something like that. It’s a long study but dude, think of how much we could rack up.”

Things seemed to be moving at once too quickly and too slowly for Theon to follow. His head felt full of cotton balls. Dumbly, he managed, “We?”

Robb laughed at how Theon wasn’t getting it. “Yeah, dude. You know me best and I know you best, so it makes sense! What if they asked something really detailed? It didn’t say two guys couldn’t sign up, anyway. It won’t be that hard to fool them, I mean, a lot of people think there’s something going on anyway. It’ll be funny.”

Theon managed to push past the pathetic shiver of pride he felt at “you know me best.” It was beginning to dawn on him that this was possibly the worst idea anyone had ever had. He couldn’t think of why he had torn off the slip that morning, and he regretted whatever impulse it was that had led him to do so. He regretted going to Northern U. He regretted waking up this morning. He regretted waking up at all, because waking up had set him on the path to this moment, where Robb Stark was laughing at the idea of the two of them in a relationship while also earnestly proposing this mockery of it.  And the idea that people already suspected something between the two of them felt intensely unfair in a way Theon couldn’t even begin to unpack.

Robb, sensing his hesitation, said uncertainly, “You okay, man? It was just an idea.”

And then Theon, in yet another stellar moment of saying precisely the wrong thing, said, “Dude…we’d be legends.”  

The look of pure relief and joy and excitement Robb gave him washed over Theon, and he stepped back almost, like he had been physically hit. “Hell yeah, buddy, let’s get those cards.”

Robb clapped his shoulder and went to go take a customer’s order. Theon stood rooted to the spot, thinking over the past few moments and concluding that he was utterly screwed.


End file.
